SIFF reviews, in 140 characters

Seattle news site Publicola is covering Seattle International Film Festival films via public reviews on Twitter, and iheartbunnies‘ take on “Stella” is one of site editor Josh Feit’s favorites.

“Mostly it’s a fun challenge for the Twitter reviewers,” Feit said. “Can you capture this movie in 140 characters or less?”

The site has posted a couple dozen “Twittereviews” since staff began handing out cards with submission information at SIFF venues Friday, raising eyebrows among readers used to Publicola’s standard fare — news about local and regional politics.

“Obviously the focus of Publicola is local politics, but we have a music nerd and a film nerd and a sports nerd and a nerd nerd — I’m being literal,” said Feit. “The film nerd is obsessed with SIFF, as am I.”

There are three ways to submit Twitter reviews to Publicola, none of which is easy to explain without using some Twitter lingo. You can send it as a private, “direct message” to Publicola’s Twitter account, @atpublicola; send it as a public reply to the same account; or simply follow the account, which Publicola interprets as an indication that you allow it to post your mini-reviews on the site.

Publicola plans to keep the lines open throughout the 25-day festival, which opened Thursday night.

While Feit acknowledges the effort is largely aimed at letting the public interact with the site, he also credits 140-character reviews with a certain, valuable efficiency.

“With a Twitter review you kind of have to say, ‘It sucked,’ ‘it was great,’ and get a more direct hit on what people think about the movie,” Feit said.

“As I’ve told the film nerd when I edit her: shorter, concise, better.”

Where did Publicola get its name?

In case you think the site got its name from some combination of a public forum and a soft drink, Feit explained that “Publicola” is actually the last name of Publius Valerius Publicola, a Roman political figure whose first name was adopted by the writers of the Federalist Papers as a pseudonym. Feit told readers he dresses as James Madison, one of the document’s writers, every year on Halloween.